Monthly Archives: March 2018

The Interrupted Journey, Resumed

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While this picture may not look like much, it actually speaks volumes. Just a little over two months after having the tendons in my left leg surgically reattached to what was left of my kneecap, I was back on my bicycle, and able to once again help Rhonda make grocery runs. At my nine-week checkup, my doctor, visibly impressed with my progress, released me to resume normal activities.

It was time to move on.

We went for one last walkabout to say goodbye (for now) to St Petersburg. Spring here is beautiful. If you follow our Facebook page, you’ve seen these pictures already, but for those who don’t or haven’t, here’s a taste of what you’re missing.

Rhonda had one last sit-down with her adopted pets. These guys started out four months ago just randomly swimming by looking for a handout. Within weeks, they started showing up regularly and quacking for Rhonda to come and feed them (who was training who?). After four months, they knew her so well that they’d come by to visit and hang out, and let her hand feed them.

We named them George and Martha. Rhonda misses them already.

Four months is a long time to sit immobile at a dock. We called a diver to scrape the barnacles off our prop and shaft. It took hours to remove and stow the variety of lines and fenders we’d rigged to protect Eagle Too from the hard concrete pier. But finally, we were ready for sea. Various acquaintances we’d met during our time in the marina stopped by to wish us well.

And finally, we resumed our interrupted journey. We had a good three day weather window to move south before a strong cold front bringing thunderstorms and 30 knot winds was predicted to sweep down the Florida peninsula. It was just enough time to hop down the Intracoastal Waterway to Ft. Myers Beach, where we knew we’d be able to pick up a mooring ball in the well protected bay to safely ride out the weather.

A day to Sarasota Bay, where we anchored off the Ringling (of circus fame) mansion.

Another day to a little anchorage we like in Cape Haze that we call the Cul-de-sac. Most times we have it all to ourselves, but this time we shared it with two other sailboats.

Traffic on the ICW was crazy, like traveling a major highway on a holiday weekend.

And then a day to the municipal mooring field here in Ft Myers Beach.

After three days onboard, it was nice to relax ashore with pizza and beer.

We’ll be here for three or four days, and then once the weather settles back down we’ll be on our way south again. If you want to follow along, you can track us at share.garmin.com/eagletoo.

Galley Notes—Provisioning Tips

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When it looked like our cruising season had been ended by my  recent injury, we began eating into our store of onboard provisions. But now that it looks like we’ll soon be on our way again, we’ve started restocking the pantry. Here are some provisioning tips we’ve learned for you current or soon-to-be cruisers out there.

First, before we leave the states we stock up on some essentials. We like to have plenty of shelf stable UHT milk (no refrigeration required until opened) onboard to make our morning lattes. While we’ve never had a problem finding bacon or some sort of breakfast sausage wherever we’ve traveled, we have had a hard time finding things like Spam and corned beef hash. Spam and hash can be scarce in the Bahamas, and when you do find them, they can run six to seven dollars a can, compared to about two bucks here at Publix.

Refrigerator space is some of the most valuable space on a boat, so in addition to buying UHT milk, another way we’ve found to stretch the limits of our cold storage space is to stock up on canned butter. We usually get a confused look from people when we mention it, and you probably won’t find it on the shelf at your local grocery store, but it’s easy to locate online. This is really high quality creamery butter from New Zealand that tastes wonderful. Each can holds the equivalent of three sticks of butter, and can be stored in the pantry with the other canned goods. As we open each one, Rhonda transfers the contents to a small plastic storage container to keep in the refrigerator.

We’ve never had a problem finding flour and oatmeal wherever we’ve traveled, but all the flour or cereal products we’ve purchased in Mexico (even at major stores like WalMart and Sam’s Club) or in small groceries in the Bahamas have come with unwelcome guests in the form of weevils. It’s common in stores down in the islands to have to look for flour in the freezer, as it’s the easiest way to protect from infestation. A traditional cruiser’s way of dealing with this is to add a liberal amount of bay leaves to the containers used to store pasta, cereals and grains. Apparently there’s something about them that weevils just can’t stand. So we keep an ample supply onboard. It’s much cheaper to purchase bay leaves in bulk than to buy spice-sized bottles, and this gives us enough to let us throw a liberal amount in each container used for cereals or grains. Plus we have plenty onboard for soups or stews!

Believe it or not, mac & cheese is a major staple in the Bahamas. They serve it as a side for everything, along with a dish called peas & rice. Dicing a can of Spam into mac & cheese is an easy to make one-pot meal when underway that we’ve found is one of the few things that goes down easily and stays down when it’s rolly enough to start making us feel a little green around the gills. So when we saw this while doing some online provisioning, we decided to give it a try.

It’s apparently a whole pound of what’s in that packet of golden goodness that’s included in every box of Kraft mac & cheese. We always have plenty of pasta onboard, and usually have butter and UHT milk, so with this, we’ll no longer have to hunt for boxes of Kraft while we’re down in the islands. We’ll let you know how it turns out. Plus we’re all set if we decide to whip up some beer & cheese soup someday!

Right Place, Right Time—Our First Grand Prix!

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Sometimes things just happen in a way that ends up putting you in the right place at the right time. If I hadn’t shattered my kneecap a few months ago, Rhonda and I would have long since headed to Cuba and the Bahamas. But since our stay here in St Petersburg had been extended for my recovery and recuperation, we’ve ended up experiencing some pretty interesting things. One we’ll probably always remember is this weekend’s St Petersburg Grand Prix. We’ve watched for a month now as they turned two miles of downtown streets into a Formula One race track. This past weekend, it was showtime.

If you’ve been with us long enough to have read our post “Yes I Am (Or Theoretically Could Be) a Pirate,” then you know we’re not above looking for an angle to exploit when trying to save a few dollars while taking in new experiences. In this case, we wanted to check out the race, but the tickets seemed pretty steep at $75 each. But we’ve been here long enough now to get pretty familiar with the layout of the town, and it only took us a short while to find a spot that hadn’t been adequately fenced, and from where we could see some of the action at the best possible price—free!

It’s been quite the scene here in the marina as our dock filled up with the expensive yachts of racing team owners, helicopters buzzed overhead, and the air was filled with the sound of thousands of angry hornets generated by Indy race cars roaring around the course at speeds up to 175 mph.

This shows where we were in relation to the action.

And here’s a cool little video we grabbed from the televised coverage that gives you an idea of the size of the marina (largest on the west coast of Florida) its proximity to downtown and the municipal airport, which is where the grandstands were set up for the race.

It’s now the day after and the show is over, so we took a walk on the empty track that just yesterday was buzzing with action.

We found what are called tire marbles everywhere, and picked up a few as souvenirs. They’re formed from the rubber that peels off the race car tires as they zoom along the course. I wondered why the cars were constantly in the pits getting tires changed, but now I understand. The rubber they use has the consistency of chewing gum!

While I don’t think it’s something we’d plan to try and attend again, getting to experience the St Pete Grand Prix was definitely one of the highlights of our stay here.

I Did It My Way—The Uncooperative Patient

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“I expected you to come in on crutches,” my therapist said at my first physical therapy appointment.

I hadn’t. I was wearing the leg brace my surgeon had prescribed, but rather than locking it rigidly as directed, I’d released it to swing 30° so that I could move my injured leg enough to limp along without crutches.

While lying in bed recovering from the surgery necessary to put my left knee back together, I’d had plenty of time to surf the web, researching the procedure my orthopedic surgeon had performed. I was particularly interested in the discussions on recovery time. The listed recovery range for a partial kneecap removal and patellar tendon reattachment ran from six weeks to one year, with the average being five to six months. I thought six weeks sounded pretty good. I wanted to be that guy. So I started pushing myself pretty aggressively.

It started while I was still in the hotel room we stayed in post-surgery while waiting to regain enough strength to be able to get back onboard Eagle Too. First I’d use my crutches to get back and forth to the bathroom. Then I started leaving one next to the bed, using the other as a cane. Within a couple of days, I was able to hobble back and forth without them.

Once back onboard, I started taking a daily walk. At first I could barely make it to the nearby street corner and back, stopping to pat the corner lamppost in triumph before returning to the boat, holding on to Rhonda the entire time to steady myself. After a few days, I was slowly adding distance to my route.

Two weeks after surgery, at my first follow-up with my surgeon, he told me I could begin weight bearing on the leg. “Way ahead of you, doc,” I said. “I’m already walking around the block every day.”

Two weeks later I started physical therapy. That’s when I surprised them by walking in rather than hobbling in on crutches. They were even more surprised when after two weeks of therapy I showed up without my leg brace. I just felt it was doing more harm than good. I understood the need to protect my knee from being flexed excessively and tearing the tendon repair. But walking with a cage on my leg was throwing my gait off so much that my hips would hurt like hell after a 20 minute walk. I could see where if I followed the prescribed regimen and wore the brace for 12 weeks, I’d need to learn how to walk all over again once it was off. So I jumped on Amazon and ordered a Velcro knee support to wear instead.

“You need to put that leg brace back on,” my therapist sternly lectured me.

“Yeah, that’s pretty much not going to happen, it’s killing my hips when I walk,” I replied.

“Well you really shouldn’t be walking so much,” he said unapprovingly. “I want you back in that brace.”

Another week, another therapy appointment. I again showed up with just my Velcro support.

“Have you been wearing your brace?” my therapist asked.

“Not one time,” I replied. We just stood and stared at each other for a moment, and then he shook his head and started warming up my knee with an ultrasound probe.

Rhonda and I resumed our Tuesday walks to the local AMC theater for $5 bargain movie days. Then we started going a few more blocks to Starbucks. Another week, and I was once again accompanying her on the mile walk to Publix for groceries. I started walking back wearing 20 lbs of groceries in a backpack.

At my six week post-surgery follow-up with my surgeon’s nurse, she was as dismayed as my therapists. But when I showed her that I could stand, walk, and move my leg freely, she shrugged, checked with the doctor and then wrote me a new physical therapy prescription authorizing strength training exercises.

Now it felt like I was getting somewhere. Rather than just standing and waving my leg around at therapy, I could start using the leg press machine and ride the stationary bike. Another week went by and then I decided to test myself. I’d been using Uber and Lyft to get back and forth to my therapy appointments. I now decided to get a ride to my appointment, and then walk the 1.5 miles back to the marina afterwards. It went OK, and that became my new routine. Last week, I started walking both ways. You should have seen my therapist’s face when I said I didn’t need to do any warmups since I’d walked a mile and a half to get there and I was pretty sure the knee was warmed up already.

And now it’s been over eight weeks since my surgery. My knee is a long way from being all better, but it’s strong enough that Rhonda and I can head into town for a festival and go to dinner, covering three or four miles in the process. More importantly, I can move around on deck, climbing up and over the dinghy to get to the anchor locker, or down the ladder on the stern to access the swim platform lockers. A few weeks ago I just didn’t have the strength in my left knee to climb around like that. I figure in a few more weeks, it won’t even be that difficult.

My next follow-up with my surgeon is in another week. I intend to tell him that he did such a wonderful job that he won’t be seeing me again. We love St. Petersburg, but we’ve been here way too long. It’s less than three months till hurricane season starts again, and we want to try and do some cruising. So unless it voids my warranty or he sees some major reason why I shouldn’t, we’ll probably push on south and head for the Bahamas for a couple of months. It sounds like a great way to recuperate!